Oriens Journal of the Oriens Foundation

October-December 2008 Volume 13, Number 4 $4.00 When in Rome Ever since the Reformation, the Even as a medium for good solid anti- English have prided themselves Catholic propaganda of the type dear This Issue on their incapacity for logical to innumerable English hearts, Basic thought, and on their national proved to be useless. Churchill, for a Page 1 Editorial “genius for muddling through.” It while, fell in love with Basic and tried to is not surprising, then, that they recruit the ferociously Protestant Duke Page 2 are susceptible to fits of linguistic of Devonshire into disseminating it. The Latin Mass calendar totalitarianism by those who do Duke asked a characteristic question: By Oriens staff writers indeed have a conscious (if malign) “What is ‘To hell with the Pope’ in Page 4 agenda, and who are prepared Basic?” Back came the answer from the The strange Roman way Basic glossary: “The Holy Father must By Oriens staff writers go to a hot spot.” The Duke rejected this Page 7 immediately, and no more was heard of Synod tentative on Wrestling the Basic crusade. Biblical inerrancy By Fr Brian W. Harrison Nowadays, luckily, Basic English with our has been forgotten, except for Orwell’s Page 11 Monk and nun round-up ridicule of it in 1984. Sadly, recent By Katrina Edwards Latin spirit news reports of local governments in the UK have demonstrated that the same Page 12 egalitarian itch which gave us Basic, Two Canberra ordinations By Oriens staff writers to enforce it. After a decade of more than half a century back, is still Blairism, it need astonish no-one being scratched. Page 13 that we should witness another Latin ... as I please Bournemouth Council, Dorset, By David Daintree attempt at verbal thought-policing. revealed (BBC News, 3 November Page 14 Precisely because the English 2008) that it has supplied a list of An unlikely trove of language is the richest in the world, it “eighteen Latin phrases which its staff Russian icons offers a temptation to those who, under are advised (in practice, ordered) not By Mark Feeney to use, either verbally [presumably the the promptings of class or religious Page 16 animosity, want to impoverish it. council means “orally”] or in official God’s architect During the 1930s and 1940s the chief correspondence.” And what are these By Roger Sandall linguistic fashion in Britain was for “eighteen Latin phrases” which must no Page 20 longer be permitted to assail ratepayers’ so-called Basic English, devised by a Church music by the professor and ardent pagan, Charles tender susceptibilities? They include unchurched: Fauré Kay Ogden, who believed everything “e.g.”, “ad hoc”, “bona fide”, and “ad By R. J. Stove worth saying could be said with a lib.”: not very obscure terms, we might Page 23 vocabulary of 850 words. As might have supposed. Book reviews be predicted, the Basic English Bible Nonetheless, other councils, such By Lyle Dunne and translation (1941-49) displays a truly as Salisbury’s, have now followed Aniello Iannuzzi priceless gaucherie. Its version of St Bournemouth’s lead, sometimes Page 27 John’s Gospel begins: “From the first concerning other tongues as well as Scientism fiction he was the Word, and the Word was Latin. The councils of Aberdeenshire, By Fred Reed in relation with God and was God.” continued on page 3

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Events Oriens Volume 13, Number 4 October-December 2008 Latin Mass Published by the Oriens Foundation GPO Box 2021, Canberra ACT 2601 www.oriensjournal.com calendar: Editor Gary Scarrabelotti Executive Editor Vatican R. J. Stove Illustrator Denise Sheehan pronounces Contributing Editors Gerard McManus Stephen McInerney Martin Sheehan Oriens staff report on a failed attempt in Britain to impose new calendar principles on the old Oriens is the journal of the Oriens Foundation. The Oriens Foundation promotes appreciation for, and Missal. understanding of, the traditional Latin liturgy as one of the foundations of Western civilisation. Oriens traces in On the whole, the episcopate of England and Wales history and culture, in language, art and aesthetics, in religious and moral norms, the influence of the classical has been singularly slow in implementing the Pope’s call Western liturgy, and examines its interactions with in Summorum Pontificum for wider use of the Traditional private life and public affairs. Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal. Thus it is hardly I wish to subscribe to Oriens for: surprising that the episcopate has also sought to complicate 1 year $30 the issue of Holydays of Obligation. 2 years $55 The particular question at stake is as follows. Should the Masses 3 years $80 for these Holydays be tied in, as they have been by the episcopate, and I would like to make a donation of $______with the Novus Ordo calendar’s practice of transferring them to ($20.00 minimum) the following Sunday (Sundays being, naturally, days of obligation for Catholics anyhow)? Please send your cheque and this form to: Oriens Foundation Earlier in 2008, the bishops wrote to Rome’s Ecclesia Dei GPO Box 2021 commission, in what is technically called a dubium, seeking Canberra ACT 2601 clarification on the matter. For some reason, they never released AUSTRALIA the commission’s reply. Name Transferring of feasts Address What they did release was a pronouncement insisting that Epiphany, the Ascension, and Corpus Christi must be transferred Telephone to Sundays. The pronouncement was reported in London’s Catholic Herald on 2 May. Email continued on page 10

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Editorial continued from page 1 and Blackburn with Darwen (this last prohibited “man-made” (its employees Whatever changes in public, in Lancashire), have now forbidden must say “synthetic”), “one-man economic, and domestic life these ill- (Daily Telegraph, 2 November) the show” (its employees must say “one- omened events foreshadow, we can phrase “in lieu”, simply because its person show”), and “forefathers” (its be confident that every contraction or origin is – quelle horreur! – French. employees must say “ancestors”). bizarre expansion of human freedom required to build the world glimpsed in Such political correctness has not Catholics have been dismally vision by our leaders will be furnished gone without opposition. Cambridge familiar over the last forty years with with its own supporting instruments of classics professor Mary Beard has told the consequences of such meddling. linguistic and symbolic manipulation. the Telegraph: “This is absolute bonkers Quite apart from the expulsion of So it was during the Communist and the linguistic equivalent of ethnic Latin from Catholic worship, we revolutions of the twentieth century, cleansing. English is and always has and so it has been during the cultural been a language full of foreign words.” revolution which, beginning in the Another British classics academic, Slovenly 1960s, has swept unabated through Peter Jones, is quoted in The Daily the Western world of whose internal Mail (3 November) as saying: thinking crisis that of the Catholic Church “This sort of thing sends out forms an inseparable part. the message that language is and slovenly To heal the revolutionary damage about nothing more than the inflicted upon Western civilisation communication of very basic calls for the countervailing influence information in the manner of language of truth, clarity, and resonance in a railway timetable. But it is language and symbol. This, in about much more than that. have had to endure since the 1960s turn, requires the recovery of truth, The great strength of English liturgies thick with mistranslations of clarity, and resonance in the central is that it has a massive infusion the original texts; to suffer sermons religious acts of Western civilisation of Latin. We have a very rich which assume that congregations are – in particular, in the rites of worship lexicon with almost two sets densely populated with simpletons; whence Western civilisation drew its of words for everything. To and to endure a decline of the official inspiration and in the context of which try and wipe out the richness Catholic press from a vehicle of serious its character was formed. does a great disservice to the discussion to little more than a clearing- language. It demeans it. I am house for official media releases heavily It is a statement of the obvious all for immigrants raising their laden with lifeless “new church” jargon. (which adds little to our understanding) sights not lowering them.” We did not need Orwell’s warnings – to say that various have been the influences that have worked upon In this edition of Oriens we launch valuable though they are – to teach us the making our culture. What is less a regular feature on the Latin language the interconnection between slovenly obvious today – though it can still by the Tasmanian classicist, Dr David thinking and slovenly language. Most surprise us with its palpable presence Daintree. But a discussion of Latin parish churches demonstrate this – is the Latin character of Western should not be confined to the scholarly interconnection every Sunday. civilisation. To belong to Western sphere. There are broader cultural, even But why should we bother with culture is to belong to a Roman world. political, implications. This hostility linguistic corruption at a time like In order to know how to live in such toward Latin, and its influence upon the present? Surely there are matters a world, one might take the advice of the English language, exhibited by of greater moment calling for our that consummate Roman – though he Britain’s nanny-statists represents a attention? What about the Wall Street was Milanese – St Ambrose: “Si fueris concentrated form of that abhorrence crashes and international financial Romae, Romano vivito more.” “When for any language or speech that evokes meltdown; or the election to the White in Rome, do as the Romans do.” modes of thought considered fit for House of a candidate, unprecedented banishment from “modern society” in American history, with a consistent Here is a piece of wisdom. It is and branded accordingly as “sexist”, record of support for the most radical good as much for those who live in a “racist”, or “elitist”. Derbyshire’s Amber policies on human life, the family, and Roman Church as for those who live in Valley Council, for example, has limiting free speech? a Roman world. O October-December 2008  Oriens Romanità The strange Roman way

Oriens staff writers reflect the strange Roman way of revealing how history happened and why Rome came to make the decisions it has made on the traditional Latin liturgy.

How strange the Roman way! First, some background. As we bishops have appealed to QAA. But In late October a document recently reported in Oriens, most French it is clear that they, like their French appeared unexpectedly on a Vatican bishops are opposed to SP and have counterparts, have not wished to give sought to implement a “containment full rein to SP. So where have the website. It was entitled Response of policy”. They have responded to questions come from that fell upon the Cardinal President of the Pontifical requests for the traditional Latin Mass Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos’s desk in Commission “Ecclesia Dei” to Certain as if QAA were still in force. In fact, it Rome seeking clarification about Questions. appears that some explicit appeal might whether QAA rules SP? Apparently the Pontifical have made to it – notwithstanding its Would French or English bishops Commission had received a number of supersession in 1988 by the Ecclesia have written to Rome asking questions, letters all asking the same questions. Dei decree and the explicit abrogation the answers to which were obvious They wanted to know whether the of both measures in 2007 by SP. and unwanted? It’s hard to credit. terms of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum (SP), issued on 7 July 2007 Stop Old Mass! Probably the letters come from petitioners for the Latin Mass who to liberate the traditional Latin Mass A similar situation prevails in were told in private by their bishop from restrictions upon its use, could be the United Kingdom. On 14 June that QAA still governed affairs, at administered according to guidelines this year Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos least in his diocese – or words to that set out in another Roman document was in London, in his capacity as effect. Quattuor Abhinc Annos (QAA). This Cardinal President of the Ecclesia was issued by the Congregation for Dei Commission, to celebrate, in Dorothy Dixers Divine Worship on 3 October 1984 Westminster Cathedral, the first and its effect was strictly to limit and traditional Mass celebrated there in Given the patent clarity of SP, control access to the Old Mass. nearly forty years. Not a single UK these questions could not have been bishop was present at the Mass. prepared, or received by the Cardinal, In shaping its reply, the Vatican except as Dorothy Dixers. Certainly, Meanwhile, the same bishops had let out of the bag the hitherto secret Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos was well been working to prevent traditional recommendations of the 1986 ad prepared with answers. hoc Commission of Cardinals. The Catholics from celebrating the great Commission was established by Pope liturgical feasts, such as Ascension Q. Is it acceptable to refer John Paul II to advise him, in the Thursday, on the traditional day. There to the letter Quattuor Abhinc wake of the discontents aroused by was an attempt to make them to follow Annos to regulate questions QAA, how to grant greater freedom the Novus Ordo practice of shifting the regarding the celebration of to those wanting to resort to the Old celebration to the following Sunday. the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. And, officially speaking, the (See our report, page 2.) And when Roman Rite, that is, according to the Roman Missal of 1962? recommendations of the Commission the good men got a Roman response to have been kept under wraps ever their proposal, they sat on it. A. Evidently not. This is because, since. It’s not clear whether any British with the publication of the Motu

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Proprio Summorum Pontificum, according to either missal; So, we have here a Commission made the regulations for the use of the • And, finally, that in Masses with or up of John Paul II’s chief “cabinet Missal of 1962, previously given without the people, a parish priest ministers” and most trusted advisers – in Quattuor Abhinc Annos and or rector must grant permission to a veritable “Committee of the Whole”. thereafter in the Motu Proprio celebrate the Old Mass in his church of the Servant of God, John Paul Their job? To examine: “… the steps to any priest who can present a II Ecclesia Dei Adflicta have needed to remove the inefficiency of celebret from his own Ordinary. become obsolete. the Pontifical Indult Quattor Abhinc The big point, however, that the Annos…” In fact, Summorum Pontificum Cardinal wants to make is that these itself, even from Art. 1, explicitly At the outset the Cardinals matters of substantial difference do not affirms that “the conditions of recognised that the objective the Pope represent a coup by Benedict XVI, but the use of this Missal, regulated had set them was “… to promote the rather, unfinished business from the in the previous documents internal harmony of the Church …”, previous pontificate. To establish his Quattuor Abhinc Annos and that “must be achieved” by a and Ecclesia Dei, have been “primary recomposition of Communion replaced”. The Motu Proprio lists …” which necessarily respects “the the new conditions of its use. legitimate needs of minority groups” Therefore, it is no longer possible that are “… distinguished not just by to refer to the restriction fixed by full theoretical orthodoxy, but also by those two documents, regarding a truly exemplary Christian way of life the celebrations according to and a sincere and devoted attachment the Missal of 1962. [to] the Apostolic See.”

Then Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos Interesting. Rome clearly under- turned to the second question: stood that the conditions for a pax Q. What are the substantial liturgica had to based upon respect the “legitimate needs” of a group of differences between the latest Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos Motu Proprio and the two Catholics that could not simply be previous documents … ? defined as belonging to the movement argument, Castrillón Hoyos suddenly of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but It is here that he takes the unveils the long buried report to John which extended well beyond that opportunity to spring upon the bishops Paul II of his 1986 Commission. movement, and which was often found the 1986 Commission’s findings. to have little in common with the He briskly ticks off the key points Papal cabinet Lefebvre ambience except attachment at which SP differs materially from its But, first, the Commissioners. They to the preconciliar liturgy. This is a predecessors: were Cardinals Paul Augustin Mayer capital consideration, central to any understanding of the legislation that • That the Pope has determined that (Prefect, Sacred Congregation for followed; and it is one of the key there are two forms of the one rite; Divine Worship), Agostino Casaroli (Secretary of State), Bernardin Gantin planks in the Roman position that, by • That the older of the two – the so- (ex-Prefect, Congregation for Bishops and large, bishops have been unwilling called “Extraordinary Rite” – has and a Wojtyla favourite), Joseph to admit from that day to this. never been abrogated; Ratzinger (Prefect, Doctrine of the • That the older form can be Faith), William W. Baum (Prefect, Two problems celebrated without the need for Catholic Education), Édouard Gagnon As the Commissioners saw it, Rome special permission; (Prefect, Family), Alfons Stickler had two problems. First, there were • That at Masses without people every (Vatican Librarian and Archivist), and the bishops who would not implement Catholic priest is free to celebrate Antonio Innocenti (Prefect, Clergy). the Indult (QAA):

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“The bishops must do the will • a group of faithful having been late Dr Eric de Saventhem, President of the Supreme Pontiff, putting granted permission to benefit from of the International Federation Una themselves in harmony with his the indult, “others might join them” Voce, and his incomparable Vatican intentions.” subsequently and benefit from the connections. In 1989 he published original permission; a report in Una Voce Korrespondenz Secondly, there was the Indult on the Commission, no doubt having itself. • the readings could be in the received a wink and a nod from his vernacular; “… on the one hand, [it] gave Roman contacts. Cardinal Castrillón the impression that the … so- • to avoid confusion, the readings Hoyos has now confirmed the main called ‘Tridentine Mass’ was an and calendar proper to each missal outlines of the de Saventhem article. inferior reality, of a secondary The Cardinal, of course, might order, which was re-established have unveiled the report of the 1986 only out of a tolerant pity by Commission, but he has not revealed those who gave it, and, on the all. One matter he did not report was other hand, gave the impression, Recalcitrant its discussion of whether Pope Paul VI due to the heavy conditions the had abolished the old Missal de jure. Indult contained, that the Holy bishops cling See also thought this and would Perhaps Rome judges that part of not have given the Indult unless to a policy that the Commission’s work is still too hot to forced to do so.” make entirely public. Nevertheless, we can infer from the fact that Summorum To cut through, new measures were failed more Pontificum is a delayed implementation called for. What was needed – what of the 1986 Commission’s advice, that the Pope desired – was not an act of than twenty Pope Benedict’s declaration (in SP) of “toleration” but one of “reconciliation”. the 1962 Missal’s non-abrogation is This demanded the removal of “all years ago. also traceable to the Commission (as conditions contained in the Indult” insiders claimed at the time). that gave the impression that the Holy See had granted the Indult unwillingly Failed policy and the impression on the part of should be followed, but there the faithful that they were asking for seemed to be no difficulty in using But why should Castrillón Hoyos something barely tolerated by the Holy the new prefaces in celebrations release details of the Commission’s See. according to the old missal; report now? Because a major statement on the implementation of SP is in Commission’s findings • a priest [celebrating privately] the works; and because Rome wishes could freely use either Missal for to demonstrate, in advance, that Hence, the Commission advised, the celebration of Mass in Latin. recalcitrant bishops are clinging to a among other things, that The Commission also reported that policy that had failed – and was seen • the indult should be granted “to all it had discussed “whether … it was to have failed – more than twenty the faithful and priests who wished really necessary to have the agreement years ago. to use it ‘for edification’ and not for of the Bishop to celebrate the Holy The subtext is that the opponents of anti-conciliar purposes”; Mass in Latin” and noted that Paul SP are blind reactionaries resorting to • bishops should understand that VI had said that, when celebrating “complex casuistry” to derail the work it was the will of the Pope that privately, the priest “should do so in of reconciliation and peace mapped the faithful should benefit from Latin.” out by “John Paul the Great” and now the measure and that a “respectful None of this is news. Since 1989 taken up by his faithful successor. request” should be sufficient we’ve known a lot about the Commission grounds to grant it; and its findings. This was due to the continued on page 9

 October-December 2008 Oriens

Scripture Synod tentative on Biblical inerrancy

Fr Brian W. Harrison* discusses the recent conference of the hierarchy in Rome, and its working document.

The Instrumentum Laboris Doctors of the Church as well as the it something less than actual divine (“working document”) used by five pre-Vatican-II papal encyclicals authorship: representatives of the world’s treating Biblical studies. “In virtue of the charism of Catholic hierarchy at the Synod of The other side consists of those inspiration, the Holy Spirit Bishops – which met in Rome during Christians who no longer accept this constitutes the books of the October 2008 – quickly attracted classical position, but who still believe Bible as the Word of God and attention after it was presented at a the Bible is in some sense divinely entrusts them to the Church, Vatican press conference on 12 June. inspired, and hold out for restricted so that they might be received This was because of the document’s inerrancy, that is, freedom from error in the obedience of faith [italics controversial treatment of the Bible’s over a certain limited range of subjects. added].” divine inspiration and inerrancy. The late Father Raymond Brown, SS, Lively Internet discussion rapidly What did this strange terminology for instance, claimed that Vatican began, and a number of scholars mean? Why would the Biblical books Council II replaced unrestricted by qualified in Biblical studies privately need that sort of “constituting” if they restricted inerrancy as official Church discussed a joint intervention, already came into existence through doctrine. voicing their concern as to how, if the Holy Spirit’s own authorship? What at all, the document’s position on The Instrumentum Laboris followed was the IL’s authority for proposing these topics could be reconciled Brown and many other liberal Biblical such a novelty? And how would it with the teaching of both Vatican experts. It asserted: measure up against the solemn Councils and the papal encyclicals anathema pronounced by Vatican on Scripture studies. “Although all parts of Sacred Council I against all those who say that Scripture are divinely inspired, sometimes, in accordance with the One side in the dispute over inerrancy applies only to ‘that progress of science, dogmas proposed inerrancy holds that, by virtue of the truth which God wanted to put by the Church are to be given a divine inspiration of the books of into sacred writings for the sake different sense from that in which the Sacred Scripture, all of the human of salvation’ (Dei Verbum 11).” Church has hitherto understood them Biblical writers’ affirmations, regardless (cf. DS 3043)? of subject-matter, are guaranteed to be This naturally raised the question as true (in the sense they themselves to how some things divinely inspired No statement of the Magisterium intended, of course). This thesis could nonetheless be in error. It was had ever said what Catholic bishops of unrestricted inerrancy was once no real surprise, then, to find that from around the world were being held by virtually all Christians of all in its very next proposition – still in asked to endorse in this perplexing denominations and was very strongly 15(c) – the Instrumentum Laboris document, with a view to its subsequent insisted upon as a truth of Catholic gave a hitherto unheard-of definition confirmation by the Supreme Pontiff doctrine by all the great Fathers and of “inspiration” that seemed to make himself. The stage was therefore set for

October-December 2008  Oriens Scripture a vigorous debate in the months up to, the idea of passing the issue on to the final day of the Synod, for submission and during, the Synod in October. Congregation for the Doctrine of the to the Holy Father to use as basic In the event, the Synod Fathers Faith for judgement. material for his expected post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation. Among these, decided not to endorse the statement. Catholics were not the only ones Number 12, entitled, “The Inspiration Before proceedings began on 5 October, observing with great interest what and Truth of the Bible”, reads as numerous Scripture and theology the Synod might eventually say about follows: professors from various countries, as Biblical inerrancy. The flagship journal well as other members of the faithful, of American evangelical Protestantism, “The Synod proposes that the wrote in to cardinals and bishops who Christianity Today, quickly zeroed in Congregation for the Doctrine had been named as Synod Fathers, on this controversy within Catholicism, of the Faith clarify the concepts urging them not to endorse the IL conscious of the fact that over the of the Bible’s inspiration and statement. (Cardinal Daniel Di Nardo last two centuries this has already truth, together with their of Galveston-Houston told National Catholic Reporter journalist John Allen, Jr, in an interview, “Before coming to the Synod I got a lot of letters, and many of them dealt with Over the last two centuries this point.”) Indeed, it soon became apparent that there was no unanimity Biblical inerrancy has already on the inerrancy issue among the Synod Fathers and their periti (expert been a crucial factor in the scholars). division of Protestantism into As well as talking with Cardinal Di Nardo about this topic, Allen raised it liberal and conservative camps. in his interviews with Cardinals Francis George of Chicago and George Pell of Sydney. The latter apparently had been a crucial factor in the division reciprocal relationship, so as to some sympathy with the IL teaching: of Protestantism into liberal and enable a better understanding “One issue,” he told Allen, “is to make conservative camps. On 20 October of the teaching of Dei Verbum, clear that saying the Bible is ‘inspired’ CT writer Collin Hansen reported: #11. In particular, there is a is not necessarily the same thing as need to bring out clearly the claiming that it’s universally inerrant, “Inerrancy has emerged as a key originality of Catholic Biblical in every way”. issue in the Roman Catholic hermeneutics in this field.” Church’s Synod of Bishops, Cardinal George, on the other which ... provides 180 Catholic It is disappointing that these hand, while mentioning the danger bishops and other participants a assembled successors of the Apostles of “fundamentalism” and the need to rare opportunity to share their could not agree on simply reaffirming avoid being bound to pre-scientific concerns and listen to colleagues the apostolic faith that the Bible is cosmologies held and hinted at by Old from around their world.” without error in all that the sacred Testament authors, clearly distanced writers affirm. After all, the supposedly himself from the IL’s paradoxical claim Ultimately the only agreement the “unclear” sentence in DV 11 declares that the Bible is wholly inspired yet Synod Fathers could reach was to explicitly that “all that the sacred partly erroneous. George stressed to pass this “hot potato” of restricted writers affirm must be held as affirmed the NCR journalist “the affirmation versus unrestricted inerrancy on to by the Holy Spirit” – who, obviously, in faith that inspiration and inerrancy the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation, can never err. go together, so that what is inspired asking for a new decision. There were is also inerrant.” He also agreed with fifty-three propositions adopted on the But the sad fact is, the Church’s

 October-December 2008 Oriens

Scripture faith is at present being tested over to tell you dogmatically that Vatican II Roman way - continued from page 6 the inerrancy issue in much the same restricts Biblical inerrancy “only” to The usually well-informed Rorate way that it was tested four decades what God “wanted put into the Sacred Caeli blog recently reported that an ago over the issue of birth control. Writings for the sake of our salvation,” instruction in the implementation of At that time, many or even most you can calmly point out that this SP will be signed by Pope Benedict bishops and cardinals (never mind alleged “fact” of a conciliar about-face in late December and be published other clergy and the laity!) were no in January 2009. The word is that the longer sure what the moral truth was new directive will expand on the SP about contraception, even though the concept of a “stable group of faithful”. previous record of the Magisterium was Now, as in the From January 2009 no bishop really very clear on that issue. Now, as will be able to thwart an application in the 1960s, a major gathering of 1960s, a major for the traditional Mass by pleading the world’s hierarchy has found itself that he can supply no priests capable without any consensus, and so has felt gathering of of celebrating that Mass. In such an obliged to refer the matter to the See of event, the Ecclesia Dei Commission Peter for judgement. the world’s itself will send to that diocese a priest In the meantime, I would like to hierarchy has able to celebrate according to the 1962 conclude with a word of encouragement missal. This kind of measure is, in fact, to faithful seminarians and other found itself envisaged in SP. theology students who may happen There has also been speculation to read this article. For over forty without any that the new document could indicate years, in the great majority of Catholic that parish priests need not wait until theological faculties, professors have consensus. a “stable group of faithful” makes been teaching their students that it is a an application for the traditional matter of simple, undisputed fact that Mass. Parish priests might take the in Dei Verbum #11 Vatican II discarded on inerrancy is precisely what leading initiative to introduce their parishes the Church’s previous teaching (often cardinals and bishops from all over the to the riches of the traditional liturgy. dismissed now as “fundamentalism”) in world have, after careful deliberation, Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos threw out favour of restricted Biblical inerrancy. refused to confirm, choosing rather to a hint along these lines during his That breathtaking confidence in submit the matter to the See of Peter London visit. proclaiming this error, and steamrolling for adjudication. And Peter will surely, What is almost certain, however, is it right through the worldwide Catholic in his own good time, adjudicate it that the instruction also will address academy for more than forty years, is well. the question of “personal parishes” the very reason it managed to get as exclusively attached to the Traditional far as the recent Instrumentum Laboris Mass. What Rome might say on this – a document prepared and released * Fr Brian W. Harrison, OS, STD, was score has already been essayed in proudly by an agency of the Apostolic practice. See itself, and then published as a Chairman of the Department of Theology special supplement to the Pope’s own and Philosophy of the Pontifical Catholic Personal parish newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. University, Puerto Rico. He now works at the Oblates of Wisdom Study Centre On 8 June 2008 the Rome diocese All that, however, has now changed in St Louis, Missouri. This article erected just such a personal parish overnight in Rome. Quite literally is based on material that Fr Harrison based upon the Church of SS Trinità overnight – after the night of Friday- originally wrote for The Wanderer. de Pellegrini, a church famously Saturday, 24-25 October 2008. So connected with St Philip Neri, the the next time, dear student, that any continued on page 10 professor of Scripture or Theology tries O

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Events

Calendar - continued from page 2 included the following adjudication: Roman way - continued from page 9

Accordingly, Britain’s Latin Mass “The legitimate use of the Apostle of Rome. In charge of the Society (LMS) wrote to the commission liturgical books in use in 1962 new apostolate based on this church on its own behalf, submitting its own includes the right to the use of is Father Joseph Kramer FSSP, an dubium, on 3 July. On 20 October, the calendar intrinsic to those Australian. liturgical books. ... the commission replied to the LMS’s There is no lack of significance in submission. [I]t is also legitimate to celebrate the fact that the Pope’s Vicar for Rome, The LMS’s letter was addressed the Mass and Office of those Cardinal Camillo Ruini, personally to Ecclesia Dei’s Chairman, Cardinal feasts on the days prescribed chose SS Trinità de Pellegrini for the Dario Castrillón Hoyos, and was in the calendar of the liturgical signed by the society’s Chairman, books in use in 1962 with the Julian Chadwick. It said, among other clear understanding that, in What will Rome things: accordance with the legitimate decision of the Episcopal “The recent announcement do next? Conference, there is no by the Bishops of England obligation to attend Mass on and Wales ... has given rise those days.” to a good deal of confusion traditional Mass apostolate. Indeed, short of making over St Philip’s and some disquiet amongst In other words, the Mass and Office Chiesa Nuova, he could not have said our membership. Whilst we of the relevant feasts may indeed be more loudly that full freedom for the most certainly wish to maintain celebrated during the actual days traditional Mass, and those attached whereon they fall, as per the 1962 and to manifest hierarchical to it, is very much at the heart of the Missal, though they may also be communion with our bishops Pope’s pastoral direction for his own and through them our unity celebrated on the nearest Sundays. Mr diocese. of faith with our brothers and Chadwick sounded pleased with the Well, one might ask, what will sisters in the faith, there are outcome, announcing: Rome do next? a number of pastoral reasons “This ruling is very important. How about lift the 1988 – not the least the hope of It confirms that the calendar excommunications against Archbishop reconciliation with those not for the Extraordinary Form is Lefebvre and Bishops Antônio de in a regular relationship with integral to the rite and cannot be Castro Mayer, Bernard Fellay, Alfonso the Church – that suggest that suppressed or altered by bishops’ de Galarreta, Tissier de Mallerais and this question not be interpreted conferences. It also confirms the Richard Williamson? with a rigour that confuses or right of those attached to the scandalises our weaker brethren. According to the Spanish blog La Extraordinary Form [that is, the Cigüeña de la Torre, a source with a ... 1962 liturgy] to continue to reputation for accurately predicting “I would be most grateful for celebrate the traditional feast episcopal appointments, just such a Your Eminence’s clarification of days.” decree has been prepared and is on the Pope’s desk. If that proves true, and these questions as soon as is In the wake of Msgr Perl’s ruling, Benedict actually does decree it, then he possible.” we can only hope that more bishops truly will have left no stone unturned Msgr Perl responds in England and Wales do what the in pursuing that “reconciliation” within Holy Father has specifically sought, the Church to which John Paul II Ecclesia Dei’s response – signed not and allow the use of the Extraordinary aspired, but for which he would not do battle with his bishops. by the Cardinal but by the commission’s Form in the first place. Vice-President, Msgr Camille Perl – O O

10 October-December 2008 Oriens

Events Monk and nun round-up

Katrina Edwards* reports on new developments among traditional religious communities.

Trappist monastery returns interpretation of the rule of St of the spirit of tradition and to traditional liturgy and monastic Benedict and the Gregorian to counteract the decline of practices: Abbot Josef Vollberg has liturgy in Mass and Divine Office, monastic life, which especially announced, with the permission of there are flourishing abbeys. In some Trappist abbeys have had the Ecclesia Dei Commission, that Germany it has previously not to experience in recent years.” his monastery of Mariawald – in the been possible for vocations to The Trappist Order, like many diocese of Aachen, Germany – is the monastic life of a traditional others, has seen a sharp decline in returning to its pre-Vatican II liturgy form to join a corresponding numbers in recent decades, from and strict form of monastic life. community. With the papal 6,500 before Vatican II to fewer than privilege in Germany, too, there The monastery of Cistercians of 2,000 these days. Nevertheless, the is now for the first time the the Strict Observance (Trappists) recently retired Abbot-General for the possibility for young men to was founded originally in 1795, and last eighteen years, Dom Bernardo live the ancient tradition of currently has ten monks, a novice and Olivera, has been a strong proponent contemplative life in the august an oblate. Joseph Vollberg, aged forty- for continuing liberalisation of the forms of the classical liturgy and five, was consecrated abbot in January Order. in the strict observance of the 2007. Le Barroux admitted to the rule of St Benedict.” In announcing the move, Benedictine Confederation: The They also see the move back to Abbot Vollberg cited the failure of traditionalist monastery of Le Barroux the classical liturgy and strict ascetic postconciliar reforms. He said that was recently admitted to membership practice as the basis for a general “As the various postconciliar reforms of the Benedictine Confederation, some renewal of religious life. According to have not yielded for the monastery the twenty years after it was reconciled to their press release: expected flowering in liturgy and in Rome. The Benedictine Confederation the life of the Convent, now the return “Dom Josef sees himself is essentially a co-ordinating body to tradition links to the centuries-old confirmed in his decision by the for matters Benedictine rather than tradition of the Order.” The Mariawald Holy Father, whose generously a governing body, but this marks monks hope that the return to tradition formulated privilege of all desired a further step in the integration of will lead to new vocations, as has been forms of return to tradition also traditionalists into the mainstream of the case for the traditional monasteries bespeaks his personal desire the Church. elsewhere, particularly in France: that in the rediscovery of the Institute of Christ the King is ancient liturgy and manner of “Through the return to the now of Pontifical Right: The Institute life, a renewal of monastic life ancient Gregorian liturgy and of Christ the King has now been as a whole may be stimulated. the stricter use of the monastic formally constituted as a Society of … Dom Josef finds himself and form of life, Dom Josef promises Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right. It his abbey sustainably motivated himself new spiritual impulses, now operates in fifty dioceses around by the Holy Father and his also regarding new vocations for the world. In addition, its associated immediate and direct papal the abbey. Worldwide, it can be order of sisters, the Sisters Adorers of juridical act, to implement the felt that monastic communities, the Royal Heart of Jesus, is now also a tradition-oriented reform of the which cultivate the preconciliar public association of Pontifical Right: monastery with new spiritual Latin liturgy, can boast of impressive progress for a group that vigour for the sake of its future. significant numbers of vocations. started only in 2004. The Abbey assumes in this a Especially in France, on the pioneering role worldwide to background of a traditional * Katrina Edwards lives in Canberra. renew the monastic life out O

October-December 2008 11 Oriens

Events Two Canberra ordinations Oriens on a ceremony that represents good news for the traditional Mass.

Left: Archbishop Mark Coleridge “lays hands” on Deacon Marko Rehak FSSP. Right: Archbishop Coleridge seeks a “first blessing” from Fr Dominic Popplewell FSSP Two new priests were ordained Superior-General of the Priestly symbols of the occasion best captured, to the service of the traditional Latin Fraternity of St Peter (Assistant we thought, as point and counter-point Mass on the Feast of St Cecilia, 22 Priest), Fr Michael McCaffrey FSSP in the accompanying photographs. November 2008, in St Christopher’s (Deacon), Deacon Paul Goddard In one, the Archbishop Coleridge Cathedral, Canberra.Ordained were FSSP (Subdeacon), Fr Greg Jordan SJ lays hands on Deacon Marko Rahak Deacons Marko Rehak FSSP and and Deacon Anthony Sumich FSSP and, in the other, almost the reverse Dominic Popplewell FSSP, both (Deacons at the Throne). One week image, the Archbishop kneels before Canberrans. later, Deacon Sumich, a New Zealander, Fr Dominic Popplewell seeking his About four hundred people from was also ordained to the priesthood, first blessing. In the one, the man all over Australia filled the nave of St this time in Christchurch, by Bishop kneels before his spiritual lord, in the Christopher’s and provided choristers Basil Meeking, Bishop Emeritus of other the spiritual lord kneels before for a large choir, while the Most Christchurch. his man. Reverend Mark Coleridge, Archbishop The Canberra ordinations It takes a certain kind of civilisation of Canberra and Goulburn, celebrated were distinguished by a fine choir to make such great gestures; and it Solemn Pontifical Mass and conducted conducted by Mr Greg and Mrs Joanna takes a certain kind of noble worship the ordinations according to the 1962 Tondys and the excellent Latin and to inspire civilisation to such expressive Missal. splendid liturgical voice of His Grace moments. Assisting Archbishop Coleridge at Archbishop Coleridge. But what most the altar were Fr John Berg FSSP, caught Oriens’ eye were the great O 12 October-December 2008 Oriens

Language Latin ... as I please

David Daintree* on just how alive a so-called “dead language” really is.

I am most grateful to the editor hear a radio announcer present a song And what naughty images does for asking me to write a regular from Carmeena Burana, don’t, whatever the word “nubile” conjure up for you? column on the Latin language for you do, miss the opportunity to point Lithe, sexy, curvaceous, perhaps? No, Oriens: I accepted with pleasure. out to your friends, that the i is actually it just means marriageable, from the Mr Scarrabelotti even proposed a short, and that the stress should fall on verb nubere, to marry. title for it: Frank Knopfelmacher, the first syllable of Carmina. And when These semantic inversions are very he said, used to have a regular piece an outraged environmentalist tells you numerous, particularly in the Latin/ in Quadrant called “As I please”, that cats have almost decimated the English environment, since such a huge and he asked me to call mine “Latin bird population, I dare you to reply, proportion of our English word stock ... As I please.” So I shall cheerfully “Oh really, is that all? I thought the is derived from Latin, either directly, or oblige him. situation was serious.” You’ll probably through French. But even within the We have moved far beyond the get a punch in the mouth, of course Latin language weird changes occur. self-confident era when an Anglican (pacifists tend to be a bit prone to Early in our Latin studies we learn preacher could say, and indeed did say respond like that), but at least you’ll that a lucus is a grove or thicket of in a Christmas sermon, that “the study have won the intellectual bout. trees, often a sacred wood with a of Greek literature not only elevates Of course it can’t really do you a religious significance. But the root is above the vulgar herd, but can lead to lot of good. They probably just won’t luc-, “light”, and a lucus was originally positions of considerable emolument, get it. But here are a few more pieces an opening or clearing in the middle not only in this world, but the next.” of arcane stuff to keep you (if not your of the said grove or thicket, a place What a marvellously audacious piece where perhaps there might be an altar friends) richly entertained. of chauvinism that was! You can’t help for sacrifice. So the part has been taken admiring the confidence of the man. An atrium is a large light-filled open to mean the whole, and in doing so the And if Greek could do all that, in the space, right? Wrong. An atrium (from original meaning has been completely early nineteenth century, what might Latin ater, black) started life as a small subverted. Latin not be capable of? room with a hole in the roof which Finally, a quirky but supposedly was blackened by the smoke from the But alas, that proud flood of true ending to this first column. A kitchen fire built directly underneath linguistic (and political) imperialism school principal in the US wanted to has now retreated and few of us would it. The atrium in an early Roman house elevate the status of his institution by dare make even remotely similar claims. probably had more in common with translating its motto into Latin. All Nowadays, if we are Latinists, we cringe an American Indian tepee than with a staff agreed that this was a splendid before such studies as mathematics modern public room. idea, till it was discovered that the new and physics, readily conceding to “Pristine” is a nice word, isn’t it. version would be Audio, Video, Disco. those rampant young subjects all the Most of us think it means something They decided to stick with the pristine wonderful mind-expanding attributes like “perfect” or just “excellent.” “The version. that our forefathers cheerfully and car was in pristine condition,” we ebulliently claimed for Latin and might say. But it actually means old, * Dr David Daintree, Rector of St John’s Greek. We are left to languish on and therefore original. Your car may College at the University of Sydney, borrowed time. not be very good, but it has neither will become (as of December) Acting And yet ... and yet, there’s still deteriorated nor been improved. President of Sydney’s Campion College. something to be said for a classical Pristinus in Latin has a nostalgic education, isn’t there? When you next connotation. O

October-December 2008 13 Oriens

Art An unlikely trove of Russian icons

Mark Feeney* describes one man’s obsession with sacred paintings.

CLINTON, MASSACHUSETTS: Gallery, as well as icons from the Clinton I should pay back some of it A small brick building adjoining museum’s collection. in Clinton.” a driver’s education school and “It’s rare for them to loan,” said The museum has more than 350 insurance agency isn’t the first place Natalia Batova, cultural attaché icons, dating from the fifteenth century a person would look for the world’s at the Russian Federation Embassy to the present. Painted in egg tempera largest collection of Russian icons in Washington, DC, in a telephone on wood or cloth mounted on wood, outside of Russia. But that’s where interview. “This show is quite an these icons are religious works that the Museum of Russian Icons is, in event.” portray Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or saints. this mill town on the Nashua River. They range in size from miniatures, It’s an hour west of Boston – and a How did Clinton become so, well, one inch by two inches, to much larger world away from St Petersburg. iconic? The town has no appreciable Russian population or other major works, thirty-six by forty-eight inches. “Everybody I talked to about this Gold leaf is often employed for halos said, ‘You’re crazy not to do it in the big and backgrounds. city,’ “ Gordon Lankton (pictured), the Estimates of the collection’s worth museum’s founder, said in an interview range from $5 million to $10 million. this week at the museum. Lankton, “But it’s not an expensive hobby, like seventy-seven, spoke with enthusiasm Western European art,” Lankton said. about icons, oblivious to the sound of hammers and crumbling plaster “That the Tretyakov loans its icons coming from behind a back wall. to Gordon Lankton’s museum is very significant,” said Maria Zavialova The museum, which opened two in a telephone interview last week. years ago, is in the process of doubling Zavialova is curator at the Museum of its size of 5,000 square feet. Some Russian Art in Minneapolis. 5,000 visitors came last year. This year it reached that figure by June. “It means that they trust him. Icons are very fragile. They don’t travel well. Attendance is expected to go even So museums that have old, valuable higher starting on 16 October, when cultural institutions. What it has is icons don’t like to let them out of the museum hosts its first travelling Lankton. their storage facilities. But Lankton’s exhibition. “Two Museums/One museum is state of the art. It has Culture” features sixteen master icons “The town of Clinton was very everything. They trust what he has to from the world’s premiere institution of good to me,” Lankton said. “I decided offer.” Russian art, Moscow’s State Tretyakov as long as I made my money in

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Art

The museum is across the street and eighteen years ago at a Moscow flea up a hill from the world headquarters market. Lankton had gone to Russia of Nypro. Lankton increased the to investigate opportunities for Nypro plastics-moulding firm from twenty after the collapse of the Soviet Union. employees and revenues of $600,000 “I picked up this thing and asked a year in 1962, when the Illinois what it was,” he recalled of his first native purchased half of it, to 15,000 encounter with an icon. “I bought it employees and revenues of $1.2 billion for twenty dollars, took it home, and today. asked some questions. Lankton, who bought out his “The next trip I bought one for partner forty years ago, stepped down fifty dollars. Next trip I bought one for as Nypro’s president in 2002. Although a hundred dollars. Next trip for five the museum takes up most of his time, hundred dollars. Now it’s sixteen years he has stayed on at the company as later and I have a museum.” chairman of the board. It’s appropriate that Lankton hasn’t entirely given Asked to explain icons’ appeal for up Nypro for the museum, since him, Lankton mentioned extra-artistic An eighteenth-century Russian icon, exhibited it’s because of the company that the qualities: the window they afford on at Clinton, of John the Baptist museum exists. Russian culture and the fascination of was formerly director of the Higgins the stories of the saints and martyrs Over the years, Lankton had dabbled Armoury Museum in Worcester portrayed in them. in collecting: some 500 wood carvings, [Massachusetts]. “In the early days of “I had never read the Bible when working on this project I wasn’t as I first looked at icons,” Lankton said. optimistic as Gordon was about finding “Now I read it like crazy because most an audience for this subject matter in of the stories in the pictures are Bible Clinton,” he said with a laugh in a stories.” recent interview at the museum. At first, Lankton hung the icons The hope is that “Two Museums/ in his home. When his collection hit One Culture” will be “a coming of triple figures, early in this decade, age” for the museum, Russell said, his wife forbade further purchases. “and bring national attention to this “So I knew I had to do something if institution.” Lankton spoke of the I was going to keep collecting,” he exhibition in more personal terms. explained. “By then I was an addict.” “The culmination of a career is going to happen in the next month. So it’s He approached New York’s very exciting.” Metropolitan Museum of Art and Guggenheim Museum about donating Culmination is not the same as his icons. Told that only a fraction of conclusion. Asked whether he A seventeenth-century Russian icon, exhibited each museum’s holdings were ever continued to collect, Lankton did a at Clinton, of the Blessed Virgin displayed, which meant his icons double take. “Do I still collect? Oh, the occasional primitive painting would be consigned to storage, he yeah. Till the money runs out.” purchased on business trips to Bali or began to consider the idea of displaying India (Nypro has facilities in sixteen them himself. * Mark Feeney is a staff reporter at countries). But he was by no means The curator of the Museum of the Boston Globe, where this article an active art collector. That changed Russian Icons, Kent dur Russell, originally appeared on 7 October. O

October-December 2008 15 Oriens

Architecture God’s architect

Roger Sandall* on A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52), who substantially changed the face of Britain by his influence, not only during his brief lifetime but also after his death.

Greek versus Gothic – porticoes greatest English cathedrals. made much of Kenilworth Castle. Rosemary Hill tells us that this was a and columns versus pinnacles and Sir Kenneth Clark in The Gothic spires – it was a struggle that could time when “spectacle was taking over Revival felt disinclined to dwell on from acting”. At Covent Garden Pugin have gone either way, with the new Pugin’s childhood: “At this period of British Houses of Parliament (1835- befriended the workmen at the theatre, their lives, it seems, men of talent are all many of them sailors who “knew the 47) being built to resemble the much alike – the same solitary school- Parthenon. But after A. W. N. Pugin ropes” both on deck and in the flies, time, the same violence of temper, the bought himself a boat, and began the entered the lists the issue was never same omens of a brilliant future”. We in doubt. He had matchless energy; lifelong habit of wearing self-designed know what he means. But Rosemary clothing on the lines of a seaman’s rig. he turned an idle taste for mediaeval Hill properly gives Pugin’s childhood décor into buildings of religious “God bless my soul,” said his father more space. Only by understanding to a friend one day, “this morning I conviction; and between about 1830 the profound impression left on him until the 1880s the advocates of met my boy Auguste in the disguise during his visits to Lincoln Cathedral of a common sailor, carrying on his “pointed” architecture increasingly and York Minster, planting “ideas and had their way. As Rosemary Hill shoulder a tub of water which he had impressions that would last all his life”, took from the pompe of St Dunstan.” says in her fine biography of Pugin, can we understand both the passion God’s Architect: Pugin and the He had little money; at Covent Garden of his vocation – and its limitations. he sometimes slept in the boxes. Building of Romantic Britain (Allen For it is necessary to record that his Lane, London, 2007), the growing enthusiasm for mediaeval buildings Illusion influence he exercised in these years was combined with a hearty contempt One might emphasise the connection substantially changed the face of for neoclassical Renaissance styles – between the theatrical and aesthetic Britain. including the architecture of St Peter’s ideals of the Gothic Revival, as the It needed changing – politically itself. Largely self-educated, he was author of God’s Architect does, writing as well as architecturally. On the one never apprenticed to an architect, that “the art of illusion” was common hand was the tide of social discontent never studied architecture formally, to both. (She at one point describes leading to the Reform Bill of 1832. On and when in his teens he quit working Pugin at the age of twenty-one as “a the other was the steady disfigurement for his father, his first encounter with stage designer and draughtsman with of town and landscape produced by a the rest of the world was at Covent ambitions to be an architect.”) Or headstrong and heedless industrialism. Garden. one might contrastingly emphasise an Of the two, Pugin was always more important difference – namely, that sensitive to the second. This was Stage-struck designer when Pugin turned from the theatre because he was the son of a French Stage-struck between the ages of to serious religious building, it was in émigré publishing Examples of Gothic sixteen and twenty, Pugin became a moral revulsion against the “lies” and Architecture, an illustrated series valued scene-painter and designer, his “shams” of that same art of illusion. for which young Pugin regularly greatest triumph coming (in Clark’s accompanied his parents from the age words) when “his correct and gorgeous The second is more important. of six – visiting, studying, drawing, scenery made a success of the opera Sham ruins serving much the same and soaking up the atmosphere of the Kenilworth” – an adaptation that function as stage décor had been

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Architecture built in the English countryside since century. From all of this Pugin turned his aristocratic patrons expected (some 1746. Nature was required to be contemptuously away, resolved, as he of whom had castles they wanted picturesque; and there was nothing wrote in various places, to restore true rebuilt), were often very different more picturesque than ruins. Sham Christian architecture as it once had things. As much a work of history as ruins were known as “follies” and they been. of biography, God’s Architect takes us were combined with slightly more through the Tractarians and the Oxford serious mediaeval pastiches such as That would be difficult. What Movement, the Camden Society and modern castles well into the nineteenth Pugin himself had in mind, and what Young England, a group Hill calls the Romantic Catholics represented by Kenelm Digby, the growing dissatisfaction within the Church of England and the growing number of those who would recant and join the Catholic Church – John Henry Newman among them. Mediaeval faith According to Rosemary Hill, when Pugin at the age of twenty- one launched his architectural crusade his sole idea of Catholicism was “the faith of England in the Middle Ages.” He knew nothing about the modern Catholic Church: “The only Catholic he knew personally was Edward Willson, who was steeped in the same English antiquarian tradition and who had taught him to call the architecture of the Middle Ages ‘Catholic’.” Willson led him to Henry Spelman and William Dugdale, and convinced him that the Reformation was a defining disaster in English history that wrecked the social and physical fabric of the Church and had been a “terrible blow” to the arts that “adorn and soften life.” Largely uneducated, with little sense of chronology, and not realising that the Renaissance and “pagan” neoclassicism came first, the English Reformation assumed in Pugin’s mind a false importance in the history of architecture overall. In Hill’s words, he believed that “everything had gone wrong at the Reformation and had been getting worse ever since.” One had to go back there and Pugin’s design for St Mary’s, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire start again. In a letter to a friend in

October-December 2008 17 Oriens

Architecture

1834, as he moved toward embracing Shrewsbury funded what Hill describes Among the visitors who came for Catholicism, Pugin wrote that (the as “one of the most admired and visited the church’s consecration in 1846 style and spelling are his own): of all Victorian buildings.” was Charles Barry, the architect appointed to design the new Houses “I can assure you after a most This was the church of St Giles of Parliament. Pugin’s second most close & impartial investigation in the little Staffordshire town of celebrated patron (if also his least I feel perfectly convinced the Cheadle. God’s Architect has some remunerative connection in terms of roman Catholic church is the fine illustrations, and these show why pay received for hours laboriously only true one – and the only one the church aroused such admiration. spent), Barry had almost finished his in which the grand & sublime No detail of ornament or fixture had great work beside the Thames, though style of church architecture been overlooked. Cardinal Newman few would ever know the extent of can ever be restored – A very described St Giles as “the most splendid Pugin’s contribution. This matter was good chapel is now building in building I ever saw … enough to later muddied by a bitter dispute that the north & when compleat I broke out between the two families, certainly think I shall recant.” but the truth is roughly as follows: In 1835 he did so, laconically without Pugin’s mastery of mediaeval remarking in his diary, “Finished detail the Houses of Parliament and alterations at Chapel received into Big Ben itself would not look the Holy Catholic Church.” way they do: without Barry’s overall direction and control they would not Mercy of patrons exist at all. Clark writes: Architects are always at the mercy “The silly question, ‘Who was of patrons. A man might aspire to the architect of the Houses of build cathedrals (and with St Chad’s, Parliament?’ is well forgotten; Birmingham, 1838-41, Pugin created A Pugin chalice detail but it is worth remembering the first cathedral to be erected in that every inch of the great England since Christopher Wren’s St convert a person. The chapel is on building’s surface, inside and Paul’s) but will the patron agree? Pugin entering a blaze of light. I could not out, was designed by one man: was lucky to have the sixteenth Earl of help saying to myself ‘Porta Coeli’.” every panel, every wall-paper, Shrewsbury in his corner, a wealthy every chair sprang from Pugin’s Catholic and a loyal supporter through Mastery of detail brain, and his last days were the thick and thin of the architect’s That is exactly how Pugin intended spent in designing ink-pots and declining health. it to be seen and experienced. About umbrella-stands.” The Earl had inherited property this full-blown work of high romantic valued at £347,511, and his initial art, Rosemary Hill writes that “For The man himself requirement was that the Shrewsbury Pugin it marked the point, perhaps What about the man himself? country seat of Alton Towers in the first, certainly the last, where his What was he like? Neither smooth Staffordshire be improved. His religious and aesthetic ideals were seen nor discreet, dressed eccentrically, predecessor, the fifteenth Earl, had to be equally fulfilled. It convinced sometimes dishevelled and dirty, filled the gardens with Indian temples, architects and Catholics alike and it he was voluble and loud and when Chinese pagodas, and a model of remains his best known and most frustrated swore like a sailor. All this Stonehenge. The sixteenth Earl wanted loved building.” From the stunning was combined with immense good none of that. Instead what he wanted image of the interior reproduced as humour. We’re told that in the room were scenes from Ivanhoe, and Pugin Colour Plate 14, one can see what she where he worked – with nothing more worked at transforming Alton Towers means, and also why Newman was so than a rule and a rough pencil – there for many years. More significantly, impressed. was “a continual rattle of marvellous

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Architecture stories and shouts of laughter.” He had professional life he built himself a slowly from a serious bout of insanity tales to tell of the sea, of trips to Flanders house, a solicitor and authority on (he would die within five years of to buy religious antiquities, and of church music named John Lambert the terminal consequences of an STD being wrecked on the Scottish coast found Pugin’s enthusiasm and warmth contracted in his rackety days in the (“there is nothing worth living for but irresistible, and welcomed him into theatre), Pugin had taken himself off Christian architecture and a boat” he his Catholic circle. Newman, however, to Europe with almost no luggage, one once said). No one, writes Clark, could though at first attracted, and a great shirt, wearing his sailing clothes, and looking both unclean and eccentric. Unshakeably Gothic His faith in Gothic was unshaken: he was determined to now confront the Renaissance and speak his mind. Rome he found “disgusting and depressing”, he loathed the “paganism” of both the Renaissance and the Baroque, and he told two prelates “in immediate attendance on the Pope” that he “expected St Peter’s to be rebuilt in the Gothic style.” What he may have told the Pope himself, author Hill does not say. Should we be much worried about all this? I don’t think so. Pugin was a great religious artist; his rough ill- educated prejudices were inseparable from his gifts; and Rosemary Hill makes all of this reasonably clear. Of Another Pugin design: St Paul’s, Oatlands, Tasmania her book it is difficult to speak too highly. It should be on every serious escape “his mediaeval vehemence and admirer of St Giles, was finally unable reader’s list. whole-heartedness.” The ecclesiastical to bear the man himself. He described world fired his imagination, and he Pugin as an “immense talker” who was loved its language: “rough tongue-free unselfgoverned.” * Roger Sandall was born in New Zealand, This reaction was perhaps natural in “The stoups are filled to the and educated at the universities of Auckland brim; the rood is raised on high; a man of exceeding refinement who and Columbia. His most recent research the lamps of the sanctuary burn once laid it down that “a gentleman is and writing has concerned a forthcoming bright; the albs hang in the seldom prominent in conversation.” reference book on the history of architecture. oaken ambries and the cope Though more than rough and This article originally appeared in the July chests are filled with orphreyed unstoppable vehemence was involved. 2008 issue of Annals Australasia, and is baudekins; and pix, and pax, Newman finally decided he was reprinted by permission of that magazine. and chrismatory are there, and dealing with a “bigot,” a harsh opinion thurible and cross.” his encounter with Pugin in Rome did In Salisbury, where early in his nothing to soften. In 1847, recovering O

October-December 2008 19 Oriens

Music Church music by the unchurched: Fauré

This is the second article of a series. R. J. Stove discusses eminent composers who spent most of their lives outside orthodox Catholicism, but who made notable contributions to sacred music.

The Fauré Requiem: seldom if to foster-care for no fewer than four One Sunday morning, having attended ever can a major sacred work have years. Scarcely had he shown talent at a particularly strenuous, protracted become more completely detached, the piano – and talent is the operative municipal function, he “entered the in the public mind, from its creator. word, rather than a Mozart’s or organ loft in white tie and tails. He For every thousand persons who Mendelssohn’s prodigy status – than was discreetly dismissed.”2 Saint- know the Requiem, often through he found himself despatched, when Saëns paid Fauré the double-edged having heard all or part of it at still only nine, to an extremely austere compliment of calling him “a first-class funerals, not one would know musical boarding school: Paris’s École organist when he wanted to be,”3 and enough about Fauré himself to be Niedermeyer. There he received much it is fair to suppose that at Rennes even aware of his Christian names. better and broader artistic instruction he simply did not want to be, that (They were Gabriel Urbain.) In than he could have gained anywhere he coasted on his gifts. Back in Paris many respects Fauré might well have else in France, the Paris Conservatoire from 1870, he regularly played the enjoyed this sort of half-celebrity. included. Louis Niedermeyer, the organ at various churches in that city, The least extroverted of French school’s director, inculcated into his such labours culminating in a position composers, Fauré seemed content to trainees a thorough knowledge of at the Madeleine, where in 1877 he await admirers’ homage rather than Bach, Palestrina, and (an especially succeeded Saint-Saëns. to impose himself on them. These powerful influence on Fauré’s melodic Battleships could almost be floated admirers have often discerned in style) plainchant. Saint-Saëns, on the upon the sea of ink that has been him something cat-like, which is school’s teaching staff at the time, spilt regarding Fauré’s adult religious accurate enough. His compositional became Fauré’s closest friend. convictions, or lack thereof. Some, surefootedness possesses a certain with more optimism than accuracy, feline character, but so too does his Defiance have called Fauré an outright pagan. innate reserve. After finishing his extended (1854- This assumption has been demolished Born at Pamiers in the Pyrenees 65) Niedermeyer studies, Fauré by the world’s greatest living Fauré on 12 May 1845, Gabriel learned obtained his first permanent musical expert, Jean-Michel Nectoux: “it self-reliance at an early stage. Even job, as organist to the church of would … be quite wrong to regard by the standards of a civilisation Saint-Sauveur in Rennes. This did him as an atheist,” even if “at heart where parental “quality time” in the not satisfy him for long. In a gesture … he was a doubter and the resulting modern sense was unimagined, it is of defiance, he would escape tedious mixture of pessimism and resignation remarkable how chilly an upbringing sermons (he found most if not all set him apart from the ‘despair’ of the Gabriel had. His parents sent him the sermons tedious) by “going out Romantics.”4 Near the end of his life away, because of his delicate health, into the church porch for a smoke.”1 (1922) Fauré wrote in a private letter:

20 October-December 2008 Oriens

Music

“The universe is order, man is a note, dating from October 1900, he asked Fauré to be a sponsor, only disorder. But is that his fault? to Colette’s husband Henri Gauthier- to learn that the latter was ineligible He’s been thrown on to this earth, Villars (“Willy”): “My Requiem’s being for sponsorship. “Fauré, Gabriel? ... where everything appears to be played in Brussels, Nancy, Marseilles We don’t have anyone here with that in harmony, and he walks about and at the Paris Conservatoire. You wait, name,” announced the supercilious on it staggering and stumbling I’ll soon be a celebrated composer!”7 SACEM clerk, who went on: “in order from the day of his birth to Four years before this note, he had to be a sponsor, one must be first a the day of his death, weighed been appointed the Conservatoire’s member, and in order to be a member, down with such a burden of professor of composition. His students a composer must receive from his physical and spiritual infirmities included Ravel, the aforementioned performances a minimum of 200 (so much so that someone had Mlle Boulanger, the biographer- francs in royalties a month. And, your to invent ‘original sin’ to explain composer Charles Koechlin, and the Gabriel Fauré has never earned such the situation!).”5 Romanian violinist-composer George a sum!”9 Enescu. Yet at least one of his students, Nadia Marital sangfroid Boulanger – herself an outstanding Fauré remained, nevertheless, teacher in subsequent years – consid- extremely little known to ordinary Perhaps serious commercial success ered him broadly orthodox, albeit his folk. In a rare but memorable rage, on Fauré’s part would have produced attitude concentrated one-sidedly on greater contentment in his marriage, on the Church’s gentler elements: which he embarked with astonishing sangfroid. Apparently a match-making “Religion: one could say salon hostess, Marguerite Baugnies, that he understands it rather nominated three unmarried girls: one in the manner of the most of whom was Marie Fremiet, daughter tender episodes in the Gospel of the sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet according to St John – rather (whose statue of Joan of Arc will, according to St Francis of Assisi incidentally, be known to Melbourne than according to St Bernard, or readers: it adorns the State Library’s according to Bossuet.”6 entrance). Someone wrote down these This is what might be expected girls’ names and put them in a hat; from the man who wrote the Requiem, Fauré ended up choosing the slip of and whose other sacred pieces – such paper that contained Marie’s name.10 as the Cantique de Jean Racine and He wed her in March 1883. Actually the tiny (ten minutes long) Messe he got on much better with Emmanuel Basse, in addition to a dozen motets Fremiet than with Marie; ill-wishers – recognisably derive from the same maintained that Fauré had “married his soothing hand. In his liturgical output, father-in-law.”11 Proficient in what later Fauré almost never raises his voice, eras would call passive-aggressiveness, he bawled out his publisher Julien and nowhere seeks to frighten listeners Marie would ostentatiously “forget” to Hamelle: “I am simply unable to with invocations of death. do the laundry when Fauré needed tolerate any longer your indifference clean clothes for a public occasion.12 to the fate of my compositions. I Small following He never pretended to view material am fifty-one, I am a professor of fidelity with anything except contempt; Not that he had many listeners until composition at the Conservatoire, in spite or because of his diffident air, after he reached middle age. When the organist at the Madeleine; but you which prevented him from conducting Requiem (which took him from 1887 treat me as though I was some student orchestras effectively,13 women found till 1890 to complete) first gained just out of school.”8 When his pupil him irresistible. popularity, no-one felt more surprise Émile Vuillermoz sought admission to than Fauré himself. He exulted in SACEM (the French composers’ guild), Elevated to the Conservatoire’s

October-December 2008 21 Oriens

Music

directorship in 1905, Fauré manifested onwards he noticed severe auditory He died the next day, 4 November beneath his quiet manner a steely disorders, which impaired pitch 1924. Arts Minister François Albert resolve. So skilled did he show himself perception in the most dreadful ways. spoke for most people outside French at retrenching superannuated drones, He complained that though notes in musical cognoscenti’s ranks when, to that his son Philippe compared him the request by these cognoscenti for a state funeral, he responded: “Fauré? Fauré’s son Who’s he?”18

compared him NOTES 1. Charles Koechlin, Gabriel Fauré, 1845-1924, trans. to Robespierre: Leslie Orrey (Dobson, 1945), p. 3. 2. Jean-Michel Nectoux, Gabriel Fauré: A Musical Life (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991), p. “He ordered 16. 3. Nectoux, p. 41. a head to roll 4. Nectoux, p. 111. 5. Ibid.

every day.” 6. Nadia Boulanger, “La Musique Réligieuse”, Revue Musicale, October 1922, pp. 104-111, at p. 107.

7. Nectoux, p. 119. the middle register (while very faint) 8. Nectoux, pp. 273-274. at least sounded in tune, “the bass and 16 9. Émile Vuillermoz, Gabriel Fauré, trans. Kenneth Nadia Boulanger, pupil of Fauré treble are an incoherent jumble.” At Schapin (Chilton Book Company, Philadelphia, 1969), first, somehow, he kept his sufferings pp. 14-15. with Robespierre: “He ordered a head a secret from all but a few. Eventually 10. Nectoux, p. 36. 14 to roll every day.” To one novice, who further subterfuge no longer sufficed, 11. Nectoux, p. 38. had won the Prix de Rome (the chief and in 1920 he reluctantly retired. 12. Ibid. Conservatoire award), Fauré cuttingly During his last illness he told 13. “Like many great composers he was an appalling observed: “You must be honest now conductor”: Marguerite Long, Au Piano avec Gabriel and admit you don’t deserve it.”15 his children: “When I’m gone … Fauré (Julliard, Paris, 1963), pp. 91-92. Supporters will fall away, maybe … 14. Vuillermoz, p. 21. You mustn’t be upset by this. It’s Auditory disorders 15. Nectoux, p. 266. fate, it happened with Saint-Saëns and 16. Nectoux, p. 292. The rigours of administrative with other composers … They all go 17. Jessica Duchen, Gabriel Fauré (Phaidon, London, life reduced the leisure he had for through a period of oblivion … None 2000), p. 212. his own composing, but a far worse of that is important. I did what I could 18. Ibid. problem also intervened. From 1902 … now let God be my judge …!”17 O

A selective discography of sacred Fauré Over the last half-century Fauré’s Requiem seems to have been committed to disc by every second conductor. Most interpretations, and all interpretations dating from before about 1980, use the more elaborate and sensuous rescoring carried out around 1900; but latterly the ascetic original version has won favour. (One maestro, Philippe Herreweghe, has recorded both versions.) Some Requiem recordings include no fill-up at all (notably the celebrated 1962 one on EMI which stars two glamorous vocal soloists, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the late Victoria de los Angeles). The majority, however, include at least some other music, often the Cantique de Jean Racine. An all-Fauré collection issued by Collegium Records – with John Rutter conducting – supplies not only the Requiem and the Cantique but four motets and the Messe Basse. Least predictable in its main disc-mate is Daniel Barenboim’s Requiem account (EMI), which, at bargain price by the bye, comes not only with the Fauré Pavane but with no less a masterpiece than the Bach Magnificat in tow. – RJS 22 October-December 2008 Oriens Books Benedict and a house of cards

Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, by Tracey Rowland; Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008; pp. 208.

Reviewed by Lyle Dunne*

The present article is not so much Left to Right (so to speak), there are the a book review as an opportunity to “Transcendental Thomists” like Karl use the book as a springboard from Rahner, the French “Ressourcement which to put forward a position of scholars” like Henri de Lubac and my own. (This is more frequently Hans Urs von Balthasar, and the “neo- true than is generally conceded.) Thomists” like Reginald Garrigou- One reason is that Tracey Rowland Lagrange. Ratzinger is identified with is a serious academic philosopher and the “middle ground” Ressourcement theologian, and I am not: it would scholars, who with the “Transcendental be impertinent of me to attempt to Thomists” ganged up on the neo- evaluate her analysis of the Pope’s Thomists before going their separate theology. This book is itself a self- ways. The views of the followers of to gain a foothold so suddenly? Rahner could be seen as dominant not confessed simplification of complex None of the conventional “trigger” so much in the Council itself but the matters for tyros like me, and I’ll theories seems to explain this. Blaming vitally important battle for the meaning doubtless oversimplify the concepts bad liturgy begs the question of how of the Council, leading to a weakening further to make a point or two here. it got so bad. I’ve been attached to of all that was distinctive about the But first a few highlights. the sex-and-authority theory: a new Church, in theory and practice. I enjoyed the discussion on the conscientious position of “loyal three “transcendentals”: truth, The chapter on liturgy might earn dissent” – almost a new truth value goodness, beauty – identified broadly two cheers from some hard-core – was devised to allow people to with St Thomas Aquinas, St Francis traditionalists. Ratzinger’s critique of reject the teachings of Humanae Vitae of Assisi and St Augustine respectively contemporary liturgy is well elucidated (which had been presented in a way – and the risks of getting them out and clearly endorsed, but … but there that made continuity with millennia of balance. In this context, there are is also the view that not all was rosy of tradition appear surprising), some thought-provoking descriptions before the Council. leading to a weakening of respect for of the theological approaches of Pope One of the big questions for authority generally, coming as it did at Benedict and his predecessor, which traditionalists has been the “house of a time when the whole Zeitgeist was increased my respect for both. cards” issue: not just “what went wrong proclaiming rebellion against authority and freedom to do what one chose There is a fascinating taxonomy of in the Church”, but if everything was with one’s genitalia. The line from theological schools going into Vatican good about the pre-conciliar Church there to the Nancy Pelosi / Joe Biden II, which some traditionalists will – the traditional Latin Mass, sound cake-and-eat-it position on abortion object to as not identifying a clear class theology, no sex ed – how did it is clear. of “bad guys”. (Generally they all wore collapse so suddenly? How were black hats, so that doesn’t help.) From heresy, bad liturgy and bad taste able But this didn’t fully explain why

October-December 2008 23 Oriens Books celibate clergy were so keen to develop being more rational than rationalism Those of us who survived the such escape routes, nor the faithful, (as Chesterton might have said), given conciliar and subsequent periods trained to resist the blandishments rationalism’s cannibalistic tendencies. with our faith intact tend to focus on the breaking of rules, the teaching of of world, flesh and devil, so keen to An associated point concerns heresy, failure of the hierarchy to offer embrace them. Ratzinger’s Faith, while the dangers of over-intellectualising, courageous witness, and the collapse not directly addressing this question, of treating the Faith as a series of of public morality, as the problems. So suggests some possibilities. propositions, and difficulties as failure we tend to see “hard-line” theology, the to grasp a syllogism in the chain of On liturgy, it is observed that there enforcement of rules and the teaching was a tendency among the faithful to of propositions, as the answer. regard attendance at Mass as a kind of “Church Parade”, something one did In a “post- A full solution – the fact this is so out of a sense of duty. difficult to write strengthens the point – might require more emphasis on our The neo-Thomists, and their religious” relationship with the Person of Christ: predecessors the Leonine Thomists, on worship, on holiness, on love. going back to Suárez and the period society, good after the Council of Trent, are accused There is, in my view, a broadly of having reduced Catholicism to will needs analogous danger in worship: a focus a set of theological formulae, and on the rules and details of liturgy simplified formulae at that, for formation. that I’ve decided to call “Liturgiology”. pedagogical convenience. With this I’ll deal with this less-than-attractive comes a separation of theology from logic. Defences developed to deal with neologism in more detail another philosophy, so that Catholics could Enlightenment rationalism were of time. But here, again, I’m reminded engage with the world on general limited use in the Age of Aquarius, for of the need for balance between moral questions, relegating theological example, when people were looking (in beauty, truth, and love. Charity, if you questions to the private sphere. I may all the wrong places) for inspiration, prefer. Again, there’s also danger of be leaping off the springboard here, for something to give meaning to their losing sight of the person of Christ. but I’ve often struggled with the idea lives. Many traditionalists appear to remain of moral truths as accessible to all indifferent to the state of the Novus In the moral sphere, this leads to a men of good will. It’s struck me (at Ordo liturgy; indeed, it sometimes pharisaical moralism: lists of sins, lists of a superficial level) that this might seems to me that some would rather rules, and the minimalist arithmetic of work in a society formed by the moral it were not reformed, so that people indulgences. This approach sometimes precepts of Christianity, but in a “post- would more easily abandon it. Yet this seems to ask: what’s the least I can do religious” society, good will needs is the liturgy attended by most of the to get to Heaven? It seems a long way formation. More profoundly, Rowland Catholics in most of the Churches in from worshipping God, and helping quotes Ratzinger quoting Augustine most of the world. our neighbour, out of love. (in contradistinction to Aquinas) to Perhaps it’s understandable that the the effect that God can only be known Along with this moral rigorism struggle we’ve had to gain access to the by “purified reason” – purified by faith, – at the same time, paradoxically, a traditional rites makes us neglectful of and by love - not through the human kind of minimalism – goes a Jansenist those offering other Masses. It would intellect alone. (The implications mistrust of what is beautiful in nature be a great irony, however, if it also of this for the question of salvation and humanity, and a focus on sexuality made us forget about Whom they’re extra ecclesiam are beyond the scope as more a source of temptation than being offered to. of this book, let alone your humble a gift from God – an attitude which servant.) This needs to be balanced, the “sexual revolution” was reacting * Lyle Dunne is a Canberra writer. however, against the idea developed against, and John Paul II’s Theology in the Regensburg address (included of the Body seeking to restore to a as an Appendix) of Catholicism as balance. O

24 October-December 2008 Oriens

Books Fatima, Lucia, Bertone etc.

Il Quarto Segreto di Fatima (The Fourth Secret of Fatima), by Antonio Socci; Rizzoli, Milan, 2006; pp. 251.

Reviewed by Aniello Iannuzzi*

In Italy, journalism is with many subsequent Popes paying not a utilitarian exercise in homage to Our Lady of Fatima. communication, but rather an art What has remained a mystery for form. The passion and turn of phrase almost a century now is the Third that are to be found in epics and Secret, in which Our Lady is supposed plays are no more intense than what to have made apocalyptic prophesies is dedicated to the review of the about the Pope, the Church and weekend’s sporting results. It is for humanity as a whole. But do we know this reason that reading La Gazzetta this for sure? All Popes since 1917, dello Sport (The Sport Gazette) is a small number of the Curia, and a far more satisfying than picking up handful of Portuguese clergy have read only did Vatican II let loose upon The Sydney Morning Herald. the Secret, or gleaned aspects of it from the Roman Church a liturgical and And so it is with Il Quarto Segreto di Sister Lucia, the last surviving seer. doctrinal crisis, it also unchained Fatima. Its journalist-author, Antonio the so-called “Fatimists” and allowed According to Fatima cognoscenti, Socci, transforms a well-founded them to link the Council and Third Our Lady commanded that the Third report on modern and current events Secret. In their view, Vatican II was the into an exceptional piece of writing Secret be revealed to the world in 1960. Whatever the case, there apocalyptic event that Our Lady had more rich, complex and enticing than warned about. most novels. Indeed one has to keep certainly was an expectation that it reminding oneself that The Fourth would be revealed at that time. But Himself a devotee of Our Lady of Secret is neither fantasy nor a giallo (a Pope John XXIII had other ideas – Fatima, Pope John Paul II decided murder mystery). plans that, perhaps, seemed bigger to reveal the Third Secret on 13 May and better to him. He buried the secret 2000, the Feast Day of Our Lady of What unfolded in Fatima in 1917 and proclaimed the Second Vatican Fatima: “a bishop dressed in white” is without doubt the most significant Council instead. Looking back with climbs a hill towards a cross; dead series of historical events in the the benefit of hindsight, one can now bodies strewn all over the ground; the twentieth century. Never since the see that the chief abuse of Vatican II – bishop is killed by soldiers. The official Pentecost itself has Heaven made such that is, the placing of the human ahead Vatican interpretation was that the an obvious sign for all of us on earth of the supranatural and the earthly vision prophesied Ali Agca’s attempted to behold. Unlike all other Marian over the Heavenly – started with the assassination of John Paul II in 1981. apparitions before or since, Our Lady proclamation of the Council, and has Indeed, Ali Agca obligingly jumped of Fatima made her prophecy public, remained that way since. onto the bandwagon and proclaimed and authenticated it by the Miracle of the Sun. Ecclesiastical approval of the Pope John’s Council had himself the instrument of Fatima – a apparitions and the Miracle was swift, consequences he did not foresee. Not kind of Holy Sinner worthy of positive

October-December 2008 25 Oriens Books press. The media, always intent on more regrettably for the Vatican, the courage to truly reveal and fulfil what undermining Catholic truths, were investigation led to his initial premise Our Lady wants of them. equally obliging in their reportage. being overturned. Far from proving Akin to a classic giallo, sub-plots his Curial connections squeaky clean, And so what? Are we missing abound. Bertone vs Socci is the he found that something fishy is going something? Why suppress the secret major sub-plot, as Bertone goes to on in the Fatima “Department”. for nineteen more years if the key event great lengths to defend the official had come to pass? Why not reveal it after the assassination attempt, or at least when the wounded Pope had regained his strength? The Fatimists were having a field The Fatimists and the Society of St Pius X were having a field day with day with their theories, and the their theories – in particular, with their claim that the Vatican had failed claim that the Vatican had failed in 2000 to reveal the Third Secret in full, and that an essential part of it still to reveal the Third Secret in full. lay buried in some deep and secret archive. At this point Socci decided to Socci concludes that the Fatimists interpretation of the Third Secret. The step in and clear the air. are fully justified in their suspicions. Cardinal goes so far as to publish In what is a meticulously researched There are too many questions left a book and make multiple media account, Socci traces the paths of the unanswered about the completeness appearances. Despite Bertone’s efforts, Third Secret from Sister Lucia to the of the Third Secret text published in the Pope and other prelates lend him Pope, via her confessors, bishops and 2000; and there are important details, nothing but silence: a silence that adds even the Patriarch of Lisbon. Socci required to make sense of what the greater weight to the arguments of examines the events of 1917, the life Vatican has revealed, that so far have Socci and the Fatimists. Someone who of Sister Lucia, as well as the relations not come to pass. A “bishop dressed had once been a close colleague had (and sometimes deliberate lack of in white,” presumably a Pontiff, has now turned viciously on Socci. relations) between various pontiffs and yet to die a violent death at the hands The Socci-Bertone battle is also the seer during the course of her life of soldiers, or anyone at all for that taken up in another publication, The until her death in 2005. matter. Secret Still Hidden, by the American Until the publication of Il Quarto What of the consecration of Russia lawyer Christopher Ferrara. For those Segreto, Socci had enjoyed a great to the Immaculate Heart of Mary? And who cannot bear waiting for the English rapport with the Vatican elite. As an what about the prophecy that Portugal translation of Il Quarto Segreto, I acclaimed Catholic journalist, he was would be the only nation that would can recommend Ferrara’s work as one often asked to keep company with remain faithful to God? that distils Socci’s findings, as well the likes of Cardinals Ratzinger and as providing important updates on And what about the strange “etc.” in Tarciso Bertone (the latter is the current Bertone’s bizarre behaviour. Sister Lucia’s text of the Third Secret? It Secretary of State) at book launches, is as though she refers to another, more What appears to be the knock-out interviews and other such gatherings. It detailed, document she had written punch for Socci is the evidence of is for this reason that Socci considered about the secret: a document that is Archbishop Loris Francesco Capovilla, himself to possess the credentials to believed to rest in the draw of the the personal secretary of John XXIII, put to rest the conspiracy theories and writing desk in the Pope’s bedroom in who still lives in retirement in northern end-of-time scenarios that by now had Rome. Six Popes have used the desk in Italy. It is from Capovilla’s notes that become commonplace whenever the question, but the letter has apparently the whereabouts of the Third Secret word Fatima was mentioned. not moved from that location – it is can be traced with certainty and that Unfortunately for Socci, and even as though none of them have had the we can be confident that there exist continued on page 27 26 October-December 2008 Oriens

Philosophy

Scientism fiction - continued from page 28 people are sawing away at things and to pooh-pooh consciousness (“It’s just reactions for another.” blowing into other things and waving a metaphysical construct”) or to say To which he will respond that he back and forth, but what is the point that it evolved for some purpose or objects because an evolutionary instinct of it?” A deaf man can be very bright, (physical definition, please?) makes but he cannot hear. A deaf man knows him want (how does a purely physical that he is deaf. A scientismist does Is a brick system want things?) to pass on his not. conscious? genes via his daughter. Oh. “Then may Pseudo-religious systems I burn your post-menopausal wife instead, since she isn’t going to pass Like other approximately religious another. Since fossilised consciousness along any further genes?” systems, scientism requires wanton is rare, I do not see how one knows Behind all this convolution disregard of the inconvenient. that it evolved at all, and I note that lies a profound unease with the Consciousness, for example. It has evolution does not contain purpose, mysteriousness of life and with the limits no scientific definition. It cannot though evolutionists generally do. be instrumentally detected. (Is a of human understanding. We overrate And, of course, the scientismo- brick conscious? How would you ourselves. Perhaps scientismists ought mechanistic view falls completely know?) Does consciousness interact to say to themselves every night, apart when it bumps up against such with matter? It would seem so. If I “The brightest of a large number of difficult matters as right and wrong consciously will my hand to move, it hamsters is, when you get down to it, or, worse yet, Good and Evil. These does, and a cinderblock, falling on my a hamster.” lack physical definitions, as does foot, robustly affects my consciousness. consciousness, and so don’t exist. * Fred Reed, a former US Marine, lives Well, if consciousness affects the near Guadalajara, Mexico. He describes physical behaviour of matter, would Evolutionary instinct? himself as being “by all accounts as not physics take it into account? But I say to the scientismist, “I think loony as a tune.” This article is from how? The American Conservative’s 25 I’ll burn your daughter at the stake The usual response to these August 2008 issue, and is reproduced tonight. Surely you can’t object? I’m here with that magazine’s permission. questions, as I have encountered it, is merely substituting one set of chemical O Fatima - continued from page 26 at least two versions of the Secret in remains sober and balanced in his plausible, and more chilling possibility circulation within the Vatican. analysis. Rather than vehemently to consider … that if, as Paul VI put Socci also (and quite fairly) asks rebuking the Vatican, he leaves open it, “the smoke of Satan has entered the the question why the Vatican has only two possibilities. One is that the Vatican Church”, then he and his predecessors officially silenced two figures in the last has revealed the Third Secret, at least might have been too afraid to reveal hundred years: Sister Lucia and St Padre in substance. The second is that there the Secret in its entirety for fear of Pio. In this day of aggiornamento, free is a part of the Third Secret – a so- what it might mean for the fate of their speech, the “right” to express oneself called “Fourth Secret”, his work’s title projects, for their reputations, and for – to take two Australian examples, – that remains undisclosed. the future of humanity. Bishop Pat Power and Bishop Geoffrey Socci’s bottom line is that however Robinson – one wonders what the one assesses the evidence, whether * Dr Aniello Iannuzzi is a writer agenda might be. it favours one position or the other, and physician. He practises in Coonabarrabran, New South Wales. Despite being the clear victor, to the Fatima story is not over yet. And date, in his war with Bertone, Socci if not, then there is a further, equally O October-December 2008 27 Oriens

Philosophy Scientism fiction

Fred Reed on the differences between the genuine scientific spirit, and the scientism which often serves as a poor substitute for it.

While the advent of the sciences Chemical reactions trivial order and best ignored. Those has been a mixed blessing, giving with real understanding focus on the A scientismist would not see these us dentistry on the one hand wave equation. things. He would see child and doglet but also the automobile and as chemical reactions, differing only in Scientists, certainly the greats, do not electronic amplification of sound, have such tinker-toy minds. A Newton, its philosophical consequences seeing a little girl with her puppy, have been purely unfortunate. In would see a little girl with her puppy. particular, we have suffered the Great scientists Large minds know their limitations rise of scientism. This consists and even welcome them: who but a of mechanistic materialism do not have hopeless drone, however bright, would applied beyond its reach. The want to live in a mindless, thumping, sciences endeavour to understand tinker-toy banging world ruled by subatomic things that are scientifically (i.e., pool balls in meaningless motion? But materialistically) understandable. minds. A the scientismist needs a mechanical Scientism is the belief that everything explanation for everything. is scientifically understandable. The Newton, seeing success of the sciences in producing Congenitally deaf iPods is such that anything a little girl with The which worketh not. There is scientismists say is received with her puppy, more to a small girl and to a puppy than reverence. We now believe in pure metabolic pathways and adenosine pool-ball materialism, whether it would see a triphosphate produced by the citric- makes sense or not. acid cycle in the mitochondrial cristae Consider a little girl of three little girl with to fuel muscular contractions involving romping with a puppy in a field of actin and myosin, thus inspiring summer flowers. (I have in mind a her puppy. linguistic horror in all about. There certain daughter in a certain field.) She is more to a sunset, rolling away in is charmed by her puppy, the puppy molten dunes in some unfathomable complexity from the fizzing of vinegar by her, and both rush about in the joy desert, slowly burning out to purple and baking soda. He can see nothing that only the very new to the world and grey, than refractive indices and else. Prettiness, affection, delight in can feel. Watching them, I would see, water vapour. bouncing – these are not scientifically and probably you would see, sunlight admissible. They have no physical Explaining a puppy to a scientismist and gladness and perhaps think that definition and therefore cannot exist. is like explaining an orchestra to the just maybe, though probably not, the If in some awkward and irritating congenitally deaf. “Yes, I see. All these world was a better place than we had sense they do have being, it is of a continued on page 23 thought.

28 October-December 2008